SAVE THE DATE: Nov. 8, 2012

Photo by Riki Feldmann

We played the Convergence MMXII/J-Pop Summit earlier today with a three-piece horn section and, as always, had a ton of fun. Major thanks to the people who run the show! And thanks to all to those who came out. If you stuck around ’til the end, you probably heard that that was our second-to-last San Francisco show and that our last show will ultimately be on Thursday, November 8 at the DNA Lounge.

We can’t even put into words how amazing the last two years have been. This band has taken us so many places we never expected, and introduced us to some of the coolest people on the planet. We’ll save the sap for our last post, especially since there is still quite a few rock left in us until November 8th! Here are our complete list of upcoming shows until it’s officially over:

Wednesday, August 29, 2012
@ Slabtown, Portland, OR
With The Bloodtypes, crashfaster and minusbaby | 8:30PM | $5 | 21+ | Facebook | flyer

Thursday, August 30, 2012
@ Funhouse, Seattle, WA
With crashfaster, minusbaby, Danimal Cannon, Freaky DNA, Hello The Future, Tracer and DJ Mr. Smith | 7PM | $10 | 21+ | Facebook | flyer

Saturday, September 29, 2012
@ The Crepe Place, Santa Cruz
With Slime Girls and more | More info TBA

Thursday, November 8, 2012 – FINAL SHOW
@ DNA Lounge, San Francisco
More info TBA

If you like us even a little bit, we strongly encourage you to attend our last show at the DNA Lounge. We’ll announce the specifics soon, but with this dream lineup, it’s going to be one hell of a party. And because it’s the DNA Lounge, those not in San Francisco will be able to watch the livestream online.

Thanks again to everyone who has supported us, whether it was by coming out to our shows, downloading our music, buying our stuff, making us cool things, or offering us shows. See you at the next one!

<3,

Lizzie and Matt
The Glowing Stars

J-Pop Summit and Convergence MMXII Festival. Oh, and tour.

Sharing the stage at California Extreme in Santa Clara last weekend with crashfaster, Slime Girls, Doctor Popular and more was an honor. Thanks to everyone who came out! We also announced our upcoming split single on vinyl with crashfaster. More details on that to come.

Our next show will be on Saturday, August 25 at the Japantown Peace Plaza in San Francisco. We will be playing at the J-Pop Summit/Convergence MMXII Festival. It’s a free show, so if you’re in the area, drop on by! For more information, visit our Shows page, or go to http://www.j-pop.com/2012/the-glowing-stars/

Last, but definitely not least, we’re happy to announce our pre-PAX Prime 2012 NW mini-tour with crashfaster and minusbaby. We’ll be playing in Portland, OR and Seattle, WA. Check out the dates below:

Wednesday, August 29, 2012
@ Slabtown, Portland, OR
With crashfaster, The Bloodtypes and minusbaby | More details TBA

Thursday, August 30, 2012
@ Funhouse, Seattle, WA
With crashfaster, minusbaby and more | More details TBA

See you at the shows!

Live videos from PulsewaveSF!

AJAPOPFILMS released two videos this weekend of our live set at PulsewaveSF, which launched July 7, 2011. This was our homecoming show, EP release show, and very first PulsewaveSF all in one! The first video is of our first song of the set, “Epilogue.” We even had a pretty bad-ass opening video, also by AJAPOPFILMS, highlighting the shows of our Quest Coast Tour. Check it out!

The second video is of our song, “I Know Now.” But this isn’t your ordinary “I Know Now.” We had Dustin Smurthwaite of Ladies & Gentlemen and Uiliami Fihaki join us on trombone. It was really cool! Matt Payne even knocks the camera with his drum stick at 2:49.

We can’t say enough how truly amazing this night was. Stay tuned for announcements on our next show! In the meantime, Lizzie will be working with crashfaster for a couple of shows, as well as recording some vocals for Wizwars.

Quest Complete!

Photo by AJAPOPFILMS

That’s it. Tour’s over. We’re both happy and sad that our Quest Coast Tour with crashfaster has come to an end. Though, we did close it pretty epically with our homecoming show at PulsewaveSF at DNA Lounge. Our good friends Awkward Terrible joined us for this show, as well as starpause and Bit Shifter. Thanks to all who came out to this truly special event! We had an awesome opening video by AJAPOPFILMS, played some new material that we’ve been working on, had a m-f-ing HORNS section (thanks to Dustin Smurthwaite of Ladies & Gentlemen and Uiliami Fihaki!), and then we joined crashfaster during his set for his song “Time” and a cover of Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So.”

We updated our Photos page on this site, but here are a few of our favorites from that night, courtesy of AJAPOPFILMS:

Since Awkward Terrible was in town, we started working on our split recording with them. We spent two days recording our songs and it’s turning out really well. We plan to release this split with them as a limited edition 7″ vinyl, but we have no set date for this yet.

Now that tour is over and our debut EP is released (YOU DID LISTEN TO IT, DIDN’T YOU???), Matt is in full baby mode with his first baby due any day now. We’re taking a short break for a few months. In that time, we’ll be working individually on some new material. I’ll also be doing some The Glowing Stars stuff solo at PAX Prime next month in Seattle, as well as some collaborations with crashfaster.

By the way, if you pre-ordered the limited edition EP (on USB Game Boy cartridges), those are shipping/have already been shipped! If you have any questions, send us an e-mail at theglowingstarsband[@]gmail[.]com. We don’t bite! We also have some extras reserved for sale. We may release some on our online store in the future.

Well, until next time! Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook! We also have a YouTube channel so you can relive the Quest Coast Tour memories with us!

-lc

Quest Coast Tour Diary #4

We’re back in the Bay Area after too amazing a time in Portland, OR and Seattle, WA, and the new AJAPOPFILMS video above proves it. Our second show in Portland, OR fell through, but we ended up going to a rad house show and partied with Apes Tapes, Radiation City, and 2 Player Productions.

Photo by AJAPOPFILMS

Above: With Cameron Spies (Apes Tapes/Radiation City) and Matt Rafferty (Radiation City).

Above: crashfaster with Paul Owens (2 Player Productions)

BUT, the quest isn’t quite over yet. Our homecoming show is in less than a week, on Thursday, July 7 at DNA Lounge in San Francisco. This show is going to be super-special for a number of reasons:

• It’s the first PulsewaveSF show – this will be a monthly chip show in San Francisco!
• Bit Shifter is coming from NYC and headlining
• Awkward Terrible will be flying from Milwaukee and opening this show and they are THE BEST. Check out their new album they just released on Bandcamp, “I Feel Asleep“
• Our debut EP “Anything Past That” will be released and on sale at the show!
• Plus, TONS and TONS of other surprises and new stuff we can’t mention on here!

So pretty, much, yeah. You’ll have to attend the show if you’re in the Bay Area. You can get advance tickets here. For those not in the area, DNA Lounge offers a webcast on their website. Bookmark this link!

Speaking of Awkward Terrible, we’ll be working on an awesome vinyl split release with them while they’re with us in San Francisco. You can bet your pretty face you’ll want it.

Oh yes, and speaking of our debut EP, we have finally unleashed its final cover art to the [internet] masses. Thanks, as always, to the talented Mike Bombon for the design!

See you all next week! Please check out our updated videos page on the menu above for more AJAPOPFILMS goodness.

Quest Coast Tour Diary #3

Gosh, I thought this would be a brief post, but so many things happened in the last 24 hours. We’re currently in Kirkland, WA staying with our dear friend Salisbury after having played an EPIC show last night at Pink Gorilla in Seattle. I try to choose when I use the word “epic” wisely, but I’d say this time would be very appropriate… wouldn’t you think?

Above: Blood splatter – a sign of copious amounts of rocking out. Photo by AJAPOPFILMS

Also, two great videos went live yesterday. The one above is a short montage of our journey to Portland, OR, plus some live footage of our set at Backspace. We’ll be posting another one soon of our Seattle portion of the tour, but first, here’s the video from the Song-A-Day thing we did for Jonathan Mann last Thursday:

For those who missed the livestream two days ago on songatron.com, we and crashfaster spent all day tracking instrumental parts on this song. Crashfaster tracked Game Boy and vocoder, I tracked some guitar, and Matt tracked –wait for it– bass, toy piano, accordion, organ, and synthesizer, and we all tracked some handclaps. Matt also choreographed our dance for the song. Check it out at the end of the video.

Today, we’re heading back to Portland, OR to party at a house show and say goodbye to our friends there. I personally am not ready to go back to the Bay Area, but we’ll see you all at our homecoming show at DNA Lounge on July 7! You can already get advance tickets here.

I asked Matt if he had a quote for the end of this post:

“Pfff, no. Too early for that.” -Matt Payne

Photo by AJAPOPFILMS

-lc

Quest Coast Tour Diary #2

Above: The Glowing Stars at Backspace, Portland, OR. Photo by AJAPOPFILMS

Whoa, we’re totally in Portland, OR right now! We just played a super cool show at Backspace last night with crashfaster, A Gentlemen’s Picnic, and BPM Ensemble. Major thanks to Apes Tapes for putting this show together for us, and to Radiation City for showing up. Speaking of the two, check out the chip cover we did of Radiation City’s “The Color of Industry” on Apes Tapes. This, and a number of other chip remixes will be included in a future Apes Tapes release. More info on that soon.

Photo by AJAPOPFILMS

Right now we’re livestreaming on http://www.songatron.com for Jonathan Mann’s Song-A-Day: The Album project! We’re tracking parts for the song “The Only Way I Know How” with crashfaster. There’s still a lot to do left for the stream, so you can still (maybe) tune in, at least if I get this post up in time. Check out the song in its demo form here:

Tomorrow, we’re heading up to Seattle, WA to play a show at Pink Gorilla. Then we’re coming back down to Portland, OR and are hopefully playing a house party we were able to get on at the last minute! Follow us on Twitter and/or Facebook to get details on that as that comes.

Also, special, special thanks to AJAPOPFILMS who is touring with us and making rad videos along the way! We’re heading back home this weekend and will be playing our homecoming show at DNA Lounge in San Francisco on July 7, which will also be the first PulsewaveSF of many. We are totally psyched for this, and it’s going to be a huge show. And for those anxiously waiting, yes — our EP will be ready by then. 🙂

“Looks good to me. Count me in, sign me up.” -Matt Payne

-lc

Quest Coast Tour Diary #1

Our tour with crashfaster is off to a great start. We had a super fun 8-bit show at Meltdown Comics with Wizwars, who did an awesome cover of The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” that I got to sing on, Mr. Spastic who got the crowd clapping nonstop, and of course, crashfaster who had special guest Italia Pierfederici sing with him. Thanks to Marco V. for taking videos of our entire set. Here’s one of our last song, “I Know Now” with the crowd worshipping Matt’s keytar shredding:

The next day, we did interviews and in-studio performances at KSCU 88.7 FM’s The Video Game Music Show with DJ sysop! That was really fun, although our set was cut a bit short due to notorious LA traffic. All in all it was worth it and the staff there was really cool about everything. Picture proof that we were there!

Our next stop is Oakland, CA at The New Parish for a fundraiser for Japan. The New Parish is a really neat venue, and I’m pretty excited to perform there. The last time I was there, I saw Dave Chappelle do stand-up comedy. Then we’re playing at Arlene Francis Center in Santa Rosa, CA the next night! Check out our shows page above for full tour details.

-lc

The Final Countdown

Rocking the KSCU stage at SubZERO Festival | Photo by AJAPOPFILMS

Last night’s show at the 4th annual SubZERO Festival was a blast! It was so great sharing the stage with crashfaster, Goodriddler, and San Francesca.

We’re currently on lock-down at monobomb studio with crashfaster working on the final details of our debut EP, and then we’re sending it off to get mastered tonight (or really, really early tomorrow). Then we’re kicking off our Quest Coast tour! Surprisingly we’re not tired of each other yet…

Our first stop is June 9 at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles. We’re also going on The Video Game Music Show the next evening while we’re still down in SoCal. We also finally confirmed our Seattle venue! Check us out at Pink Gorilla June 24 in Seattle’s University District! For full tour details, check out our Shows page.

That’s about it. We’ll update our website as the tour progresses. I asked Matt if he had anything to add to this post. He said, “whatever.”

-lc

TOMORROW • SAN JOSE: Catch us at SubZERO Festival!

Photo by Eric Hooten

We’ll be playing in San Jose, CA for the 4th Annual SubZERO Festival! crashfaster was also recently added to the lineup, which means we’re kicking off the Quest Coast Tour 2011 a few days early! SubZERO Festival is bound to be a huge show for us, and has already been getting a lot of buzz. You can find a nice little photo and blurb of The Glowing Stars in this week’s issue of San Jose’s Metro newspaper:

If you’re in the area, make sure you don’t miss this FREE show! crashfaster will take the stage at 9:30 p.m. and we’ll be on at 10 p.m.! We’ll be selling T-shirts, stickers, and buttons. For those wondering about the debut EP, it’s in great shape, and the immensely talented crashfaster has been putting in the hours in helping record and mix this EP into a rocking lo-fi masterpiece, and it will be ready in just a few weeks. Make sure to sign up for our mailing list on the right column of this site for updates!